Dinner with strangers

You have to book a table in the dining car on the Amtrak “Empire Builder”. You wait at the carriage door to be seated and the waiter places you with 3 other passengers, who embarked and will disembark at different stations. Forced socialness. I was placed at a table with Betty and John, a couple with silvering hair, and Glenn. A fat, balding realtor with 5 daughters.

Glenn: I detect an accent, what bought you to America, what’s his name

Wendy: (named my employing Fortune 100 company and it’s male CEO)

John nearly spat out his food, and barely managed to subdue the smile. As the meal progressed Glenn changed from domineering, leading the conversation to quiet. I felt a bit mean, but such overt sexism tends to quell my ability to empathise with a person.

Also, Betty and John’s story was very interesting. Glenn’s story was also interesting… but…

Dinner with strangers

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This scribble was published
on Thursday, October 15th, 2015.
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one wonderful muse on “Dinner with strangers”

A shame about the assumption – though thinking around my expat acquaintances in the UK and what I’ve seen of immigration laws on both sides of the Atlantic, I’m not sure it’s as sexist as it might seem: it does seem much easier and more common to cross that piece of water for romantic reasons than professional ones. Nice to hear that it improved his behaviour for the rest of the meal though!

Still, I suppose he can’t be all that bad, to have somehow ended up with five daughters. Or maybe they all happened while he was away on train trips…